A Fistful of Dollars: Our Alternative to ESAs

It was like the set of a movie—the breeze had died, it was hot, there was a baby crying, and the standoff was set. On one side was a committee of lawmakers, on the other, the homeschooling host. The matter at hand: the future of homeschool freedom in New Hampshire.

The hearing started at high noon. Homeschooling parents from across the state decided that practical civics was the curriculum of the day and drove to the state capitol. I had flown in the night before to testify, and I watched as what started as a trickle eventually became a torrent of families on their way to testify in favor of homeschool freedom.

First they filled the committee hearing room. Then they filled the committee room across the hall, and then another one down the hall, and another, and another. Eventually they filled the hallway itself. Then the hearing began.

Good laws make strong homeschools

At the core of homeschool freedom are the excellent state laws, regulations, and case law that protect and support it. There are a lot of ideas about how homeschooling should be supported or regulated, but for HSLDA and HSLDA Action the principle is simple: Families should have the freedom to provide the best education they can for their kids and be unencumbered in their ability to do so.

HSLDA has long held that good homeschool laws should not create education savings accounts (ESAs) or subsidize homeschooling. History shows this kind of involvement always comes with strings attached, and we’ve seen firsthand what that looks like as we’ve battled regulations over the past few years.

HSLDA does recognize the need for financial assistance, but we see a way forward that doesn’t involve government terms and conditions. That’s why we’ve been hard at work crafting model legislation to provide financial relief for homeschooling families.

More on that later. For now, let’s get back to the hearing.

The danger of public dollars

As I sat before the committee in New Hampshire, government overreach was the crisis point. The hearing had been called to allow for public comment on a bill which would have subjected every student, including those homeschooling, to take the same state tests, regardless of whether they were subsidized by New Hampshire’s education freedom accounts.

While the money in these accounts can be used to teach kids at home, the law clearly articulates that families using the program are to be kept distinct legally from homeschooling families who are not. But over the course of four hours of testimony, it became clear that many of the lawmakers could not keep the difference straight.

Joel Grewe speaking at the committee hearing

Joel Grewe testifies before the committee in New Hampshire.

This wasn’t initially a homeschool problem, but it became one when the law was written to subject everyone to the same tests. The bill even allowed public school parents to exempt their children from the testing, while homeschooling parents were explicitly denied that same right.

Lawmakers said they wanted public accountability for public dollars, a commonly agreed-upon principle. But time and again the noble attempt to provide this accountability becomes an inexorable government intrusion into families and private entities. This is part of the danger with public dollars.

The proposed tests were built around the state’s standards of learning for public school students. That may sound reasonable on the surface, but the current homeschool law already requires a nationally norm-referenced standardized achievement test, published and scored by an independent third party. That is gobbledygook which means the new test would be more restrictive and of inferior quality to the current standard.

The replacement would have judged a homeschool student’s ability to regurgitate information based on public school learning objectives. Ironically, the public school teachers already lament that they are forced to “teach to the test” at the expense of actual education. This testing mandate would have dragged homeschooling families into that existing quagmire.

The result of this whole mess would undercut the secret sauce that makes homeschooling thrive by means of a backdoor implementation of a state-mandated curriculum. In short, the state proposal was big trouble for homeschooling families.

Financial burdens of homeschooling are a reality

The choice to homeschool comes at a cost. As parents, we enthusiastically embrace these sacrifices because we love our kids and want to provide them with the best possible education. But our enthusiasm does not make these costs any less real, particularly the financial ones.

There is an inherent injustice in taxing homeschooling families to support a system they don’t use when they are also paying for another one. The government’s solution has been to hand out money and give parents a hand on the tiller of how to spend it for their kids. This is certainly better than giving parents no control, but it doesn’t overcome the problems that come with government money being government money, as we saw in New Hampshire.

In most states, subsidies must be funded every year, and with every new budget there is an opportunity to put hooks into those dollars. Governments can pass laws about all sorts of things, but one of their favorite tools to drive public behavior is to offer string-laden government money (particularly if they do not wish to be accused of forcing people to do things).

As I was speaking on Capitol Hill earlier this year, several private schools were there raising the same issue. Many schools built on a foundation of faith declared how the government intruded into their schools after they accepted subsidies. What they could teach, say, and not say were now subject to government review, critique, and dicta. Because of this, many of those schools no longer accept government money.

We at HSLDA, like many people in America, know the failings of public education. But we differ from many in thinking the government is the solution. We believe homeschooling families are far more efficient at using their resources to educate their children than the state.

The infrastructure necessary to support public education is expensive. Salaries, building fees, bus maintenance, and more drive up costs. In my home county, public education is about 72 percent of the entire county’s annual budget. According to the National Center for Education Statistics for the 2020–2021 school year, public education cost an average of $18,614 per student (in 2023 dollars).¹ Meanwhile, according to our own research, home educating families are averaging around $1,295 for elementary school and $1,636 for middle and high school. (Read more about this here.)

Despite this, homeschooling families are stretched. We pay for the public education system via taxes, and then we pay again when we take on the cost of home educating our children.

A better solution

When your tax dollars pass through the marble pillars of your government, they are no longer your dollars, they are now magically government dollars.

But there is a better solution. We call it an educational tax credit.

It is similar to the child tax credit I’m sure you are familiar with. If you have children who are dependents, you can claim a tax credit each year until they are grown. The Education Tax Credit is a bill we drafted to work the same way—if you are the provider of your child’s education, rather than the government, you would be entitled to an additional tax credit.

The benefit to homeschooling families is direct, as they will keep more of their own money. The amount will vary by state, but we propose starting with at least $1,000 per child. Of course, we would be happy to see that amount go up, but we want something that can be palatable in any state in the union.

In addition to the obvious benefits to families, we have drafted this bill to curtail the most common methods used by the government to try to unnecessarily track, count, or intrude into your homeschool. The tax credit would require no more information than what you already submit when proving compliance with your state’s compulsory education laws.

There would be no additional paperwork or administrative burden for families beyond what already exists in homeschooling and tax filing. We also designed the tax benefit to incentivize schooling that is non-public education, while not requiring families to remain under the supervision of the government to do so.

For more information on our model bill visit HSLDAAction.org/TaxCredit. To join HSLDA Action and support this work go to HSLDAAction.org.

The secret that makes homeschooling work

It was this threat of government supervision which caused homeschooling families to stand up in New Hampshire. For hours, family after family, moms and dads, kids, and policy experts all spoke. The stories poured forth.

They spoke of the wonders their kids had experienced in home education. They told of how their kids were able to get help with special needs, medical issues, and mental health concerns. They spoke of how homeschooling had been the restorative reality their kids needed from trauma they had been subjected to at school. They told stories about how their kids thrived by exploring their natural interests through a personalized education. As the stories continued, they created an incredible constellation that showcased how the freedom inherent in homeschooling is the true secret that makes it work.

Home education thrives in its freedom to recognize and respond to the uniqueness of each child. There is breathtaking diversity and customization within each family. The unique values, culture, skills, and abilities each of our kids possess are paired with the unique talents, abilities, and opportunities each family brings. Mass-produced education is not capable of adapting to the individual needs of each student. Educational freedom is the only thing that can provide the opportunity for each child to receive the best possible education.

As someone who was home educated, and who home educates his own boys, I know that what works for one child may not work for another. What one family prioritizes, another may not.

As the afternoon went on, it became very clear that the only person giving testimony in favor of the bill was its author. A few weeks after the hearing, when all the testimony was done and the research was considered, the lawmaker who had submitted the bill made the motion to deem it inexpedient to legislate.

The committee agreed and with a unanimous vote told the entire legislature that this bill was bad and should not be passed. We knew that from the get-go, so it was nice to see the legislature catch up, but it was also a reminder that we must constantly be vigilant in defense of our freedoms.

Looking ahead

To that end, HSLDA Action partners with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which is an association of thousands of state lawmakers, think tanks, and policy groups from across America. ALEC is a forum to propose model legislation that can be utilized across the United States for vetting and endorsement.

Our bill has been adopted as model policy by ALEC, and we are working to advance our model legislation at a state level to create these tax credits. The model policy aims to create a streamlined, efficient, and cost-effective way for families to access more educational options for their students.

The best part is that there is a significant body of established case law that enshrines the principle that a tax credit is not a government voucher or government disbursement of public funds. This is a better model than ESAs or vouchers like the one in New Hampshire and is based on the fundamental freedom that makes homeschooling work.

HSLDA Action will continue to advocate for your ability to keep and direct more of your own money toward the education of your children. After all, you know your children and their needs better than anyone else and you have the strongest interest in ensuring they get the best education possible.

¹ National Center for Education Statistics, “Public School Expenditures,” Condition of Education (U.S. Department of Education, 2023) https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cmb.